'Drop' Review: A good concept properly executed

In less than 90 minutes, Christopher Landon creates a good time without jumping the shark.

Concepts can be an excellent movie-launching device. Develop a story that can connect to a plot and create something worth watching. You don’t need A-list movie stars with a fine concept in your back-pocket. Christopher Landon knows this very well. He spun a new verse on the Groundhog Day setup with Happy Death Day back in 2017, presenting a heroine who had to get killed repeatedly in order to figure out who is behind the serial killings around her school.

It worked well, made a lot of money, and spawned a sequel. Landon’s new film, Drop, presents an intriguing setup: A widowed mom (Madalynn Fahy) is finally going on a first date, leaving her lovely young son at home with her sister, with a photographer (Brandon Sklenar) who has been hounding her for weeks to have dinner with him. The date is located on the top floor of a gorgeous Chicago skyscraper, and she’s nervous about what to wear. The nerves skyrocket to a whole new level when she keeps getting digital airdrops to her phone, aka text messages that just pop onto the screen.